


ghosts that we knew, they flicker from view

by frith_in_thorns



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Set just post-finale, Shared Grief, short fic, tying up loose ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 11:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13925790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/pseuds/frith_in_thorns
Summary: Set on the Urania. Jacobi and Hera begin to talk about Maxwell.





	ghosts that we knew, they flicker from view

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short fic that was written for an anon tumblr prompt.

“Hi,” Hera said. "Are you okay?"

Jacobi groaned. He would have looked away from her if he could. He settled for shuttering his expression. “No offence, but this is something of a bad time. Don’t you have more integration with the Urania’s systems to do?”

“You’ve been here outside the door for nearly twenty minutes,” Hera said. She was speaking… gently. Sympathetically. “Do you want me to ask Captain Lovelace if she’ll do this? So you don't have to?”

“No!” Jacobi snapped. He grabbed the door handle possessively, but didn't turn it.

“She’s right, you know,” Hera persisted. “Even with her staying in the med bay with the Commander right now, we need more quarters space. Maxwell’s room is –”

“I know!” Jacobi said. “If you were listening in, you know I _agreed_. It’s just…”

“You can’t open the door,” Hera finished.

“Yeah.” He unclenched his fingers from the handle. Laid his palm flat against the surface of the door instead. Nothing about it had changed in the time he'd been staring at it.

Hera made an uncertain little noise. “I can see inside,” she said, hesitantly.

“You can? Oh, of course you can.” 

“I turned the lights on,” she said. “It was one of the first things I did once everything stabilised. I wanted to see…”

She trailed off. Jacobi waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. “Did you?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know,” Hera said. “It’s where she lived, for a bit, but I don’t think it told me any more about her.”

“Is that what you were looking for?” Jacobi asked. “Information?” 

“Not really,” Hera admitted. “I was just looking for… her. More of her.” Her tone turned defensive. “I know you think I don’t count as someone who misses her. That I didn’t know her enough to count. That I’m not enough of a person.”

Jacobi sighed. Didn't look up. “I don’t think that,” he said.

“You did.”

“Yes, I did. Now I don’t.”

“Well,” Hera said. “I guess that’s something.”

He rested his forehead against the metal, and closed his eyes. “Tell me what’s in there,” he said.

Hera sighed. “I think most of her stuff is in the lockers,” she said. “There are notes on a dry-wipe board. She’s stuck photos around her mirror. There’s one of you and her on a… is it a rollercoaster?”

Jacobi smiled at that memory. “That was a good day.” Seven… no, eight months ago. A lifetime.

“You look really happy in the picture,” Hera said. “She does, too.”

“Like I said. It was a really good day.” He opened his eyes. Turned the handle sharply until he felt it disengage with a _clunk_. He took a deep breath. “Do you want me to tell you about it? While I… you know.”

“I’d like that a lot,” Hera said.


End file.
